Dutchess County spent $31K on overtime for aid paperwork first three months of 2013

By PATRICIA DOXSEY

Thursday, April 4, 2013

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. -- In the first three months of 2013, the Dutchess County Department of Community and Family Services spent $31,423.97 in overtime so workers could process the significant backlog of applications for temporary assistance, food stamps and Medicaid.

This year, the department has incurred no overtime, and the department has no backlog in temporary assistance applications. The backlog in food stamp and Medicaid applications are the lowest they've been in a year, according to Commissioner Robert Allers.

The change, Allers told members of the Dutchess County Legislature's Family and Human Services Committee on Thursday is the result of the "paperwork Wednesdays" implemented by the department in January.

"We had more work than was expected processed on paper day," said Allers. "For the first two months, the numbers (of applications processed) per week were just about double that done in a non paper week.

The success of the plan has caught the eye of social services commissioners across the state, said Allers, adding that he has been asked to discuss the program at a state conference in July.

In January, Allers began closing the department on Wednesdays in order to give employees the time to process applications outside of the time when they would also meet with clients to discuss their applications and deal with the myriad unscheduled telephone calls and in-person visits from clients who have questions or concerns about their cases.

Allers said that the department decided to close to the public on Wednesday because it is generally the slowest day of the week in terms of the number of people coming into the office.

"Overall I think it's been very positive, we have not seen where it has affected any of our clientele in a negative way, our partner agencies in a negative way," said Allers. "We're still getting complaints, but the calls that used to come in I don't know what's going on with my case, now don't agree with the decision."

Allers said told lawmakers he hoped to be able to continue the trail approved by lawmakers at the beginning of the year. "We're really going month by month, but the longer it goes the tougher it is to stop," he said.